| 
Event table notes
 | 
| Event data |  | 
   | Place: London, England |  
   | Start date: 6 Aug. 1872 |  
   | End date:   Sep. 1872 |  |  |  
   | Notes: |  
   | Hooper and Whyld give date as Sept. 1872; Giffen gives Aug. - Sept. 1872; Di Felice gives 6 Aug. to Sept. 1872; Sergeant gives the start date as 8 Aug. 1872; The Chess Player's Chronicle of Dec. 1872 (v.3, p.167) gives the date of the first game as 6 Aug. 1872. The Westminster Papers of 1 Sep. 1872 (pp.65,71) give 6 Aug. as the start date. Staunton, in the 24 Aug. 1872 issue of the Illustrated London News, says the match was underway with the score at +4-0=2 for Steinitz, and in the 21 Sept. 1872 issue he gives the final result. |  |  |  |  
   | References |  | 
| Books |  
   | Adams, Mikhail Chigorin, page 407 |  
   | Di Felice, Chess Results, 1747-1900, page 54 |  
   | Elo, Rating of Chessplayers, page 90 |  
   | Feenstra Kuiper, 100 Jahre Schachzweikämpfe, page 19 |  
   | Forster, Amos Burn, page 82 |  
   | Golombek, Golombek's Encyclopedia, page 310, 352 |  
   | Harding, Eminent Victorian Chess Players, page 231 |  
   | Harding, Steinitz in London, page 209, 347 |  
   | Hooper and Whyld, Oxford Companion (1st ed.), page 330, 387 |  
   | Moran, World Chess Championship I, page 3 |  
   | Reichhelm and Shipley, Chess in Philadelphia, page 147 |  
   | Sergeant, Century of British Chess, page 159 |  
   | Sunnucks, Encyclopaedia of Chess, page 467, 591 |  
   | Winter, Chess Facts and Fables, page 135 |  | Periodicals |  
   | [BaH], 12 Oct. 1872 |  
   | [BDE], vol. 52, no. 86, 27 Mar. 1892, page 17 |  
   | [BLL], no. 2724, 14 Sep. 1872, page 4 |  
   | [CPC], vol. 3, no. 5, Oct. 1872, page 150 |  
   | [DCJ], vol. 8, no. 62, Apr. 1875, page 199 |  
   | [DSZ], vol. 27, no. 10, Oct. 1872, page 297 |  
   | [DSZ], vol. 28, no. 8, Aug. 1873, page 232 |  
   | [EnM], 13 Sep. 1872 |  
   | [Era], vol. 34, no. 1771, 1 Sep. 1872, page 13 |  
   | [Era], vol. 35, no. 1773, 15 Sep. 1872, page 7 |  
   | [ILN], vol. 61, no. 1720, 24 Aug. 1872, page 192 |  
   | [ILN], vol. 61, no. 1724, 21 Sep. 1872, page 287 |  
   | [IZL], vol. 41, no. 1566, 5 July 1873, page 17 |  
   | [LBMD], 16 Sep. 1872 |  
   | [OSZ], vol. 1, no. 12, 16 Sep. 1872, page 89 |  
   | [OSZ], vol. 1, no. 13, 1 Oct. 1872, page 101 |  
   | [OSZ], vol. 2, no. 31, July 1873, page 216 |  
   | [Str], vol. 5, no. 9, 15 Sep. 1872, page 274 |  
   | [Str], vol. 6, no. 10, 15 Oct. 1873, page 290 |  
   | [WP], vol. 5, no. 5, 1 Sep. 1872, page 65, 71 |  
   | [WP], vol. 5, no. 6, 1 Oct. 1872, page 81, 85 |  | Web |  
   | Cree, Graeme.  [1886 Steinitz-Zukertort World Championship Match] |  
   | Giffen, Glen.  [Events Timeline] |  
   | Giffen, Glen.  [Steinitz, Wilhelm] |  
   | Sericano, C.  [I campionati del mondo fino al 1885] |  
   | Sericano, C.  [I matches 1865/79] |  
   | [Steinitz vs. Zukertort 1886, Part 3], page 3 |  |  |